Ch#98
98
A cold chill ran down her spine.
She lowered her eyes, struggling to hide her flustered state. She didn’t even know why she had said such a thing.
Her heart pounded so violently it felt as if it might explode at any moment. The thought that he might hear the thumping sound made goosebumps break out all over her body.
Panicked and disoriented, Thalia began to pour out whatever words came to mind.
“Horrible even to think about, isn’t it? So stop pushing that garbage medicine on me. I’m saying that’s how much—that’s how much I hate it….”
As she rambled to cover her tracks, the words felt like they were exposing her true feelings instead, and heat rose to the tips of her ears. She moistened her parched lips with her tongue.
She felt the presence of Varkas, who had been standing motionless, approaching the side of the bed. However, she couldn’t bring herself to look up.
Surely, he must have a look of disbelief on his face. Just a few hours ago, she had been acting like someone possessed by a demon, and now she was uttering such nonsense; he was bound to look fed up. Perhaps he even wore a cold, mocking sneer.
As if being chased, she continued her incoherent babble.
“Do you know how foul that medicine is? It makes my stomach ache after I take it. But you keep forcing it on me, so I said that just to get you to stop….”
“Thalia.”
At the sound of his voice resonating right above her forehead, Thalia stopped talking.
As she slowly, stiffly raised her head, eyes like a winter lake at dawn filled her vision.
The man, staring at her as if looking at a puzzle piece that didn’t fit, spoke in a low voice.
“Come here. I’ll feed it to you.”
Thalia blinked blankly.
She couldn’t fully comprehend the words she had just heard.
With confused eyes, she looked down at the medicine bottle held in his hand, then shifted her gaze to his smooth-looking lips.
A strange thirst suddenly arose within her.
Thalia looked away, picking at her dry lips.
“I only meant….”
I just said it, don’t take it so seriously. Just as she was about to mutter that, he opened the cap of the medicine bottle.
Thalia looked up with a start.
His inscrutable, clear eyes gazed at her as if seeking confirmation of her intent. They were eyes that seemed to see right through her, yet looked at nothing at all.
Keeping those stone-like eyes fixed on her, he brought the medicine bottle to his lips.
Her heart gave a small tremor.
If she told him to stop now, she could at least preserve the minimum of her pride.
Had she not struggled her whole life to avoid losing that very thing?
Without even that, she truly would be nothing.
‘But….’
She looked up at him with trembling eyes.
The memory of the day his lips touched hers flashed through her mind. If giving up a handful of pride meant she could reconfirm that night….
Thalia squeezed her eyes shut.
Then, a large hand with prominent knuckles wrapped around the nape of her neck.
The scent of water, the scent of mint, and the scent of the wind that always made her anxious brushed past the tip of her nose. Soon, his lips, smelling faintly of wild herbs and flowers, covered hers.
Once, those lips had only spat out sharp words that made her heart ache. When she was young, she even thought that touching them might feel like being cut by a blade. Those lips, once so cruel, were now shaking all of her senses.
Thalia unconsciously gripped his shirt tightly.
He tilted her head back and pressed his lips down even more firmly. Thalia, who had been stiffening her body, opened her mouth under the pressure against her cheeks. The concentrated herbal extract flowed over the tip of her tongue.
She frowned at the burning bitterness in her mouth for a moment, but soon, a soft tongue forced its way through.
Surprised by the deep intrusion that felt as if it reached her throat, she pushed against his chest, causing the slick muscle to withdraw slightly. But before she could feel relieved, the sensitive lining inside her cheek was crushed.
Thalia shrank her neck at the unfamiliar stimulation. The thick tongue changed direction, rubbing against the roof of her mouth before stickily entangling with her own. Saliva pooled in her mouth.
The bitter liquid and their mingled saliva flowed down the corner of her mouth. Before she could feel shame at that, the pointed tip of his tongue dug deep once more.
Automatically, her throat tightened and sucked him in. It was the moment an instinctive movement to swallow transformed into a terrifyingly lewd act.
She shuddered, letting out a faint, sultry moan she had never imagined could come from her own mouth. The wet, slurping sounds felt as if they were soaking into her eardrums.
Unable to handle the increasingly violent movements, Thalia pounded on his iron-like shoulders with her fists.
Finally, his lips pulled away. A thread of clear saliva stretched between them.
She watched it with trembling eyes before timidly looking up. There, she saw his calm face, as if he were observing her reaction.
Suddenly, a profound confusion washed over her.
Could the sticky act just now have been entirely her delusion? While she sat frozen by his expression—so serene it made her doubt her senses—Varkas picked up the medicine bottle and gave it a light shake.
“There’s still medicine left.”
His beautiful voice, laced with a faint rasp, stimulated her ears.
Thalia’s eyes widened before she hurriedly looked down. She could feel a heavy throbbing in her temples. Placing his words right by her ear, he demanded another piece of her pride.
“What should we do about this?”
Thalia picked at her stinging lips and looked down at the flickering firelight.
After agonizing in the suffocating silence for a long moment, she finally nodded. But he showed no reaction.
After hesitating for a while, Thalia forced a voice out of her tight throat with great difficulty.
“……Feed it to me.”
In an instant, her head was tilted back.
Immediately, the highly concentrated liquid seeped into her mouth. As she gulped it down, an unpleasant heat flowed down her esophagus.
However, the stinging bitterness was quickly washed away by the sticky saliva.
Thalia exhaled raggedly, clutching his shirt.
The hot muscle swam through the narrow space without pause. Pushed back by his forceful strength, her back eventually touched the bedsheets.
Thalia looked up at him with a frightened face. She wanted to sit up, but she couldn’t escape him for even a second.
Varkas, leaning his upper body over her with one hand braced on the bed, continued to suck at her lips.
In his face, covered by deep shadows, only his two eyes shone brightly. It felt as if she were immersed in a cold flame. All her senses were melting away, yet her heart grew cold with anxiety.
“Open your mouth wider.”
A moisture-laden voice dampened the area around her mouth.
Thalia, looking up at him with trembling eyes, slowly opened her jaw further.
The hot tongue immediately scraped across her own and invaded near her throat. It stayed there for a while, as if enjoying the sensation of her gasping and sucking on it, before slowly withdrawing.
Her mind grew hazy from the repeated act.
When she twisted her head to the side to breathe in the depleted air, he grabbed a handful of her hair. His long fingers wound through the strands, pulling with a strength that didn’t hurt. Even that felt like a terrifyingly obscene gesture.
“Varkas….”
A voice that sounded like a plea was mixed into her ragged breaths.
She didn’t even know what she was begging for. When she looked up with wet eyes, she caught sight of his slightly narrowed gaze. His somewhat rough palm swept up her sweat-dampened neck.
Suddenly, a terrible curiosity arose.
Has he ever touched someone else like this?
The image of him kissing Aila flashed through her mind.
He must have laid that woman on a bed and sucked her lips, too.
Just as he had granted her request without a word, he would have silently granted hers as well.
Because, to him, this kind of act probably meant nothing.
An event that felt like the world turning upside down to her would truly be nothing to him.
“……Why are you crying?”
He asked in a heavy, sunken voice, releasing the lips he had been biting.
A calloused thumb brushed beneath her eye. Thalia hid her pupils beneath her eyelashes.
“……I’m tired. I want to sleep now.”
Varkas, narrowing his brow, slowly straightened his body. He looked so detached it was hard to believe he was the same person who had been hungrily rummaging through someone else’s mouth just moments ago.
He walked to the window and pushed it open. The cool, damp air pushed out the heat lingering in the room.
Thalia stared blankly at his profile silhouetted in the darkness before turning to the other side and closing her eyes.
Her mind gradually became muddled.
When I wake up tomorrow, will I think today was a dream again?
As she had such blank thoughts, Thalia soon sank into unconsciousness.
“I have given strict orders to keep everyone’s mouths shut, so news of last night’s unfortunate incident will not spread.”
Varkas, who was patting Torque as the horse snorted roughly, looked at the Lord of Dorcaen.
The man stretched his lips into a smirk and let his mouth run.
“By the way, you have truly married a remarkable wife. Where in that angelic appearance did such a formidable temper—”
“Uzan Darken.”
The man fell silent, perhaps reading the hint of warning in Varkas’s voice.
Varkas added calmly.
“I think it would be best if you started by minding your own mouth.”
